Many Americans spent their summer vacations last year going to the local swimming hole, picking raspberries in their backyards, and spending the night in their own beds.

But this year, it looks as if Americans will hit the road ”“ perhaps kayaking in California with the leopard sharks in La Jolla Cove, learning about the world of Cleopatra at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, or shopping for Armani and Dolce & Gabbana in Milan, Italy.

Already, travel agents report, bookings are much better than last year, which qualified as a travel dud. A late May forecast from the U.S. Travel Association, a trade group in Washington, predicts a modest 2.3 percent increase in summer leisure travel compared with last year.

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Critics described the change in Church rules as “utterly unacceptable” and warned it would undermine the biblical teaching that marriage is for life.

Conservative and liberal bishops have been deeply divided over the issue, which they have been secretly discussing for months.

While Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, supported relaxing the rules, John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York, is understood to have fiercely argued against a change.

But The Sunday Telegraph has learnt that the change was agreed at a meeting of the House of Bishops in May.

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The “vicar of Baghdad” has told a Hampshire congregation about the horrifying challenges facing his mission of Christianity in Iraq.

Andrew White, the Anglican Chaplain to the Iraqi capital, told fellow Christians at Southampton’s Highfield Church of the terrorism and violence that blights the lives of ordinary citizens and the church where he preaches.

During a series of addresses he said the number of Christian followers in the country has dwindled to around 200,000, from more than a million before the 2003 invasion.

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Episcopal Village, a grass-roots community organization, offers training and practical resources to help parishes and dioceses become, among other things, missionaries in their own backyards, said Ward, abbess and vicar of Church of the Apostles, an Episcopal and Lutheran “contextual” mission congregation.

Herself a church planter, Ward said the event aims to draw on local experience and expertise to assist congregations in connecting and reconnecting with their locale. It will be held at St. David of Wales Church in Portland and hosted by the Episcopal Diocese of Oregon. A similar event is planned for Sept. 24-25 in Baltimore, said Ward, EpV director.

Among other things, the agency teaches both clergy and laity to do “neighborhood field reconnaissance” as a way of syncing the church with the community’s rhythm of life. “A lot of churches aren’t really connected to those in their own zip codes,” she explained.

Also key is the question of how the church might speak to whatever its context is, whether homelessness, prostitution, or even the isolation wrought by modern technology.

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Parish endowments that were frozen in litigation between the rival Episcopal and Anglican dioceses of Pittsburgh have thawed, and the Episcopal diocese has sent checks totaling $360,000 in back interest to parishes in both dioceses.

“We were concerned that money that could have been used for ministry in these local churches had been tied up and so we’re happy to have it available again so that all of our work in mission and ministry can go forward,” said Bishop Kenneth L. Price Jr. of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh.

His diocese was awarded about $20 million in centrally held diocesan assets in a 2009 decision by Allegheny Common Pleas Judge Joseph James. Parish property is to be negotiated separately. However, the Episcopal diocese also held $2.5 million in endowment funds belonging to parishes that had pooled their money to get higher interest. The court decree indicated that parishes had the right to that money.

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Ballarat’s Anglican bishop, under investigation over complaints of bullying, has taken sick leave amid indications he may resign soon.

Bishop Michael Hough has appointed a Melbourne assistant bishop, Philip Huggins, to take temporary charge of Ballarat, with the blessing of Melbourne Archbishop Philip Freier.

It is extremely unusual for a senior priest from within the diocese not to take charge in the bishop’s absence, but The Age believes that divisions in Ballarat run so deep that no internal candidate was deemed acceptable to Bishop Hough’s supporters and critics.

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…while the Normans used their native French as the language of the court and of literature, English became the language of England’s common, conquered people. Compare English words that come from that time ”” “fire,” “work,” “strong,” “heart” ”” to French words from that era: “glory,” “cordial,” “fortune,” “guile” and “sacred.” As McCrum explains, English disappeared from the written record, but survived “underground on the lips of ordinary people.” As a result, the language became democratized very early on.

That democratic character, according to McCrum, is partially responsible for English’s eventual global domination. While French imperialists forcefully imposed their own language on foreign countries in a “top-down” manner, English imperialists took a “bottom-up” approach. English would not be “imposed from above by the government” in the colonies, says McCrum. Instead, “the troops would arrive, and the language would flow again from the ordinary people.”

It sounds nice and democratic, but McCrum isn’t arguing that British Empire was a “benign” or “culturally beneficial” influence. “Clearly, the British Empire has much to answer for,” he says. “But at the level of language, the way in which it operated was very effective from the point of spreading English.”

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I have also to announce to the House that during the night and the early hours of this morning the first of the series of landings in force upon the European Continent has taken place. In this case the liberating assault fell upon the coast of France. An immense armada of upwards of 4,000 ships, together with several thousand smaller craft, crossed the Channel. Massed airborne landings have been successfully effected behind the enemy lines, and landings on the beaches are proceeding at various points at the present time. The fire of the shore batteries has been largely quelled. The obstacles that were constructed in the sea have not proved so difficult as was apprehended. The Anglo-American Allies are sustained by about 11,000 firstline aircraft, which can be drawn upon as may be needed for the purposes of the battle. I cannot, of course, commit myself to any particular details. Reports are coming in in rapid succession. So far the Commanders who are engaged report that everything is proceeding according to plan. And what a plan! This vast operation is undoubtedly the most complicated and difficult that has ever taken place. It involves tides, wind, waves, visibility, both from the air and the sea standpoint, and the combined employment of land, air and sea forces in the highest degree of intimacy and in contact with conditions which could not and cannot be fully foreseen.

There are already hopes that actual tactical surprise has been attained, and we hope to furnish the enemy with a succession of surprises during the course of the fighting. The battle that has now begun will grow constantly in scale and in intensity for many weeks to come, and I shall not attempt to speculate upon its course. This I may say, however. Complete unity prevails throughout the Allied Armies. There is a brotherhood in arms between us and our friends of the United States. There is complete confidence in the supreme commander, General Eisenhower, and his lieutenants, and also in the commander of the Expeditionary Force, General Montgomery. The ardour and spirit of the troops, as I saw myself, embarking in these last few days was splendid to witness. Nothing that equipment, science or forethought could do has been neglected, and the whole process of opening this great new front will be pursued with the utmost resolution both by the commanders and by the United States and British Governments whom they serve. I have been at the centres where the latest information is received, and I can state to the House that this operation is proceeding in a thoroughly satisfactory manner. Many dangers and difficulties which at this time last night appeared extremely formidable are behind us. The passage of the sea has been made with far less loss than we apprehended. The resistance of the batteries has been greatly weakened by the bombing of the Air Force, and the superior bombardment of our ships quickly reduced their fire to dimensions which did not affect the problem. The landings of the troops on a broad front, both British and American- -Allied troops, I will not give lists of all the different nationalities they represent-but the landings along the whole front have been effective, and our troops have penetrated, in some cases, several miles inland. Lodgments exist on a broad front.

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Another reminder of the things that are really important on this D-Day anniversary–KSH.

Simply an amazing man–KSH.

Another major topic before the Synod is the Anglican Communion Covenant. We are one of the first provinces to consider the final text. We are blessed to have had an Anglican Communion Working Group guiding our study of the drafts of the Covenant and inviting our input by way of critique and revision. And I know that those comments from our Church have been viewed by many within the Communion as constructive and helpful.

Section IV, Our Covenanted Life Together, continues to be challenging for many in the Communion. On the one hand it speaks of respect for the autonomy and integrity of each province in making decisions according to the polity reflected in its Constitution and Canons. On the other, it speaks of relational consequences for a Church should it make decisions deemed incompatible with the Covenant. These consequences could range from limited participation to suspension from dialogues, commissions and councils within the Communion. In my opinion, they reflect principles of exclusion with which many in the Communion are very uneasy. For if one is excluded from a table, how can one be part of a conversation? How can our voice be heard, how can we hear the voices of others, how can we struggle together to hear the voice of the Spirit? How can we hope to restore communion in our relationships if any one of us cannot or will not be heard?
In his 2010 Pentecost letter, the Archbishop of Canterbury speaks of “particular provinces being contacted about the outworking of these relational consequences.” To date we cannot be identified as “a Province that has formally through their Synod or House of Bishops adopted policies that breach any of the moratoria requested by the Instruments of Communion and recently affirmed by the Standing Committee and the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith, and Order”. However the Archbishop’s letter also refers to “some provinces that have within them dioceses that are committed to policies that neither the province as a whole nor The Communion has sanctioned”. One is left wondering if provinces whose Primates continue to interfere in the internal life of other provinces and extend their pastoral jurisdiction through cross-border interventions will be contacted. To date I have seen no real measure to address that concern within The Communion. I maintain and have publicly declared my belief that those interventions have created more havoc in the Church, resulting in schism, than any honest and transparent theological dialogue on issues of sexuality through due synodical process in dioceses and in the General Synod. I also wonder when I see the word “formally” italicized in the Archbishop’s letter. It leaves me wondering about places where the moratoria on the blessing of same sex unions is in fact ignored. The blessings happen but not “formally”. As you will have detected I have some significant concerns about imposing discipline consistent with provisions in the Covenant before it is even adopted; and about consistency in the exercise of discipline throughout one Communion. There are also lingering concerns in Section IV on monitoring discipline and procedures for restoring membership in our covenanted life together.

All that being said, I have every hope that our Church will embrace the request to consider the Covenant. Our Anglican Communion Working Group is committed to providing educational resources to aid our study. Bishop George Bruce will give us a brief overview of those materials in the course of Synod. I have every confidence we will use them faithfully and that we will offer valuable comments in response to the request for a Communion-wide Progress Report on the Covenant at the next meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council in 2012.

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After they elected their next bishop Saturday morning, Episcopalians in the Diocese of Kentucky had a short delay in contacting him with the good news.

That was because the Rev. Terry Allen White was busy at the cathedral that he pastors in Kansas City, Mo., serving as master of ceremonies for a ceremony of ordinations of new clergy.

“He’s having a very rich day,” Bishop Ted Gulick, who is retiring later this year, said after delegates elected White on the second ballot from among four nominees.

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In essence, [Rowan] Williams and [katharine] Jefferts Schori are having a very old argument over local autonomy and central authority, Butler Bass said ”” two extreme and perhaps irreconcilable interpretations of Anglicanism.

“He’s trying to find coherent Anglican identity and enforce it in a top-down way, and she’s saying we’ve always been democratic, local, grass-roots.”

That argument seems to have reached a breaking point, the historian said.

“Scholars will look back on these letters in 150 years and say, ‘This is it. This is when it all went away,'” [Diana] Butler Bass said. “The Anglican Communion is not going to make it.”

[David] Hein agreed, saying, “A path has been chosen. It seems (Jefferts Schori) has prepared to pack her bags and go off on her own.”

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